NBC News Think: Immigration enforcement has always separated people from their families

“‘Families Belong Together’ has become the battle cry of those denouncing the Trump administration’s now-ended — but not yet rectified — policy of forcibly separating children from their parents at the border. But the truth is that, in my 10 years of experience defending people from deportation, the tactic of separating families is nothing new. Our immigration system has been tearing families apart, over minimal objections, for decades.”

In an NBC op-ed, Sarah Deri Oshiro, our Managing Director of Immigration, shares the story of “Enrique,” a 60-year-old husband to a U.S. citizen wife, father to four U.S. citizen sons and grandfather to two U.S. citizen grandchildren.

While he was detained by ICE, his oldest son dropped out of college to help pay the bills, while his teenage twins’ were plagued by emotional and behavioral struggles. The family sold their cars to try making ends meet as they teetered on the brink of eviction

”The cry that families belong together must grow even louder and carry the pain of families like Enrique’s.”

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